Your stogie at Sullivan’s has been snubbed out.
The bar at the steakhouse remained one of the last civilized posts for rope smoking in LoDo after the statewide smoking ban went into effect last year. The law exempted bars if they sold $50,000 worth of cigars in 2005. So Sullivan’s figured that’s them and stayed in a haze of smoke. But in a letter from Denver Chief Deputy District Attorney Joseph M. Morales to Sullivan’s and its lawyer Robert Dill on Wednesday, the hammer came down. “After reviewing the information and data you voluntarily provided, it is clear that Sullivan’s Steakhouse does not qualify for the cigar-tobacco exemption under the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act of 2006. We would like to commend Sullivan’s Steakhouse for its straightforward and honest approach to our inquiry and for voluntarily ending smoking in its establishment.”
According to Dill, Sullivan’s sold more than $50,000 worth of the stink bombs in 2003, 2004 and 2006 — but missed the mark by a few thousand bucks in 2005. So the joint never qualified for the exemption.
“They took a gamble and decided to keep smoking,” an insider tells me.
That was then. Says Sullivan’s regional manager Chris Rockwood: “In 2008, Sullivan’s will become a nonsmoking restaurant. We’re going to embrace it, and it’ll be great. Times change.”
It’s time to cry in your ashtrays, boys. The smoke-in is smoked out.
Old time eats.
Jimmy Lambatos (Footers Catering) has opened Baur’s, a homage to the legendary Denver restaurant that ruled for almost 100 years starting in 1881, first at the Baur Confectionery Co. building at 1514 Curtis St., then at Cherry Creek, where Elway’s now rules. The Baur building was renovated last year — and Lambatos opened Baur’s Ristorante on Nov. 23, serving up some Baur’s classics such as toffee pie and crab salad. The old chandelier is up, and a vintage mural is on the wall. Restaurant man Harry Lordino is the maitre d’ on weekend nights.
Colfaxed.
The New York Times sang the praises of Colfax Avenue last month, noting that it is one of “America’s wickedest streets.”
But the times they are a-changin’. In comes the Tattered Cover. In comes RockBar. Down goes crime. Will it become yuppified? Says Denver historian Phil Goodstein at the end of the story: “Just let Colfax be Colfax.”
City spirit.
Sightems: Shaquille O’Neal watching the Jets/Dolphins game Sunday at ESPN Zone Ambassador Swanee Hunt offered to match donations to the Women’s Foundation of Colorado at its annual luncheon last month — and the foundation ended up with 62 new members and more than $6 million in its coffers Get in the spirit. Cleo Parker Robinson‘s “Granny Dances to a Holiday Drum” runs weekends at the Newman Center through Dec. 23 Sez who: “There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women.” Madeleine K. Albright
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted @denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at blogs.denverpost .
